Mathieu Assou-Ekotto (born 8 April 1978) is a French retired

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played mainly as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. Over the course of nine seasons, he amassed

Belgian Pro League The Belgian Pro League,(officially the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons with Jupiler), is the top league competition for association football clubs in Belgium. Contested by 18 clubs since the 2020–21 season and reduced to 16 team ...

totals of 132 games and two goals, mainly in representation of

Mouscron Mouscron (; Dutch and vls, Moeskroen, ; Picard and Walloon: ''Moucron'') is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the Belgian province of Hainaut, along the border with the French city of Tourcoing, which is part of the Lille metropoli ...

Football career

Born in

Sainte-Catherine, Pas-de-Calais Sainte-Catherine (; also unofficially: ''Sainte-Catherine-lès-Arras'', , literally ''Sainte-Catherine near Arras''; pcd, Sainte-Cat'leine-lès-Aro) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France. Geogra ...

, Assou-Ekotto spent nine years with local RC Lens all levels comprised but played mainly for the reserves during his spell, only appearing in three

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. A ...

games with the club. Released in the 1998 summer, he moved to Belgium and joined

R.E. Mouscron Royal Excelsior Mouscron was a Belgian football club from the municipality of Mouscron, Hainaut. In December 2009 they were declared bankrupt and soon ceased to exist. A new club known as Royal Excel Mouscron was formed in March 2010 and place ...

. In the 2000 off-season, Assou-Ekotto returned to France and played for three teams in three-and-a-half seasons, competing in the

second The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ...

third Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * Second#Sexagesimal divisions of calendar time and day, 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (d ...

and fourth divisions (in the latter two levels with Valenciennes FC). On 19 January 2004 he moved back to Belgium and its Pro League, signing with

R.A.A. Louviéroise R.A.A. Louviéroise, sometimes referred to as La Louvière or RAAL, was a Belgian football club located in the city of La Louvière, in the province of Hainaut. It had been playing its latest run in the Belgian First Division from 2000–01 t ...

. Assou-Ekotto contributed with 11 matches in the first half of the 2005–06 campaign to Standard Liège's runner-up position, before joining Willem II from the Netherlands in the following winter

transfer window A transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club can transfer players from other playing staff into their playing staff. Such a transfer is completed by registering the player into the new club through FIFA. "Transfer win ...

. In yet another January move, he signed for former club Mouscron – first joining on loan – going on to play with the Hainaut side until they folded in December 2009. The following February, Assou-Ekotto resumed his career at

Boussu Dour Borinage Royal Francs Borains is a football club based in Boussu, Hainaut Province, Belgium. It was founded in 1949 and its home ground is Stade Robert Urbain, which has a capacity of 6,000. The club is affiliated to the Royal Belgian Football Associati ...

in the

Belgian Second Division The Belgian Second Division (known as the Proximus League for sponsorship reasons) was the second-highest division in the Belgian football league system, one level below the Belgian Pro League. It was founded by the Royal Belgian Football Associa ...

. He left by mutual consent in January 2012, returning days later.

Personal life

Assou-Ekotto's younger brother,

Benoît Benoît () is a French male given name. It is less frequently spelled Benoist. The name comes from the Latin word , which means "the one who says the good", equivalent in meaning to Bénédicte or the English name Benedict. A female derivative ...

, was also a footballer. A defender, he too started his career at Lens, going on to spend several years in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

with

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

, and represented their ancestral

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

at international level.Belgique: Mouscron dit adieu au championnat (Belgique: Mouscron says goodbye to league)
; Sports.fr, 28 December 2009 (in French)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Assou-Ekotto, Mathieu 1978 births Living people Sportspeople from Arras Footballers from Pas-de-Calais French sportspeople of Cameroonian descent French men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players Championnat National players RC Lens players US Créteil-Lusitanos players Valenciennes FC players Grenoble Foot 38 players Belgian Pro League players Challenger Pro League players R.E. Mouscron players R.A.A. Louviéroise players Standard Liège players Eredivisie players Willem II (football club) players French expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands R.F.C. Seraing (1922) players French expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands French expatriate sportspeople in Belgium